Takur Ghar by Leigh Neville

Author:Leigh Neville
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: The SEALs and Rangers on Roberts Ridge, Afghanistan 2002
ISBN: 9781780962009
Publisher: Osprey Publishing

The AFO commander ordered GRIM 32 to fire into the group on the peak and hopefully disperse them to the point that it would become clear who was Roberts either from his strobe or from the fact that he would likely be trying to escape his pursuers. It was a hasty plan but it was Roberts’ best chance at survival. Unfortunately that plan was never enacted in a jumble of mixed messages that left the AC-130 crew no closer to understanding what was happening on the mountain.

The rescue attempt

RAZOR 03 managed to clear the peak under heavy ground fire. The pilots kept the stricken Chinook aloft for a bare 7km from Takur Ghar until they were forced to make a hard landing in a clearing some 2,000ft lower than the mountain, shortly before 03:00. The SEALs immediately provided 360-degree security around the airframe whilst Chapman got onto the communications net and managed to divert another AC-130, callsign GRIM 33, to scan their surroundings for enemy whilst tasking GRIM 32 to return to the peak in an attempt to ascertain Roberts’ status.

GRIM 33, and a circling P-3 Orion surveillance aircraft, picked up thermal heat signatures from a large group of individuals near the crashlanded Chinook although there is still some question whether these were, in fact, friendly-force elements from the Rakkasans. The AC-130 stayed on station to protect RAZOR 03 whilst a second MH-47E was flown up from Gardez. Slab, the MAKO team leader, wanted the second MH-47E to pick them up and fly them directly to the peak to try to rescue Roberts.

However, he was told in no uncertain terms that they would first return to Gardez, drop off the Grey Fox operator and the crew of RAZOR 03 along with much of the now not-needed gear including Chapman’s SATCOM radio set, surveillance spotting ’scopes, spare cold weather gear, cameras, and their backpacks. Their objective had rapidly changed – MAKO 30 were now on a direct-action recovery mission, not special reconnaissance, and they needed ammunition more than cameras.

When the replacement helicopter, callsign RAZOR 04, arrived at 03:45, MAKO 30 and the crew of RAZOR 03 boarded and the helo flew them all back to Gardez against the continual strong objections of the SEALs. They unloaded the 160th personnel, the Grey Fox operator, and their extra equipment quickly and lifted off at 04:45 to return to Takur Ghar.

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